Sweetness and life
'Jim the Boy' is a coming-of-age tale of understated grace, where less is more
(By Gail Caldwell, Globe Staff, 8/13/2000)
`Jim the Boy'' is the starkly sweet story of a boy's emergence into adult consciousness, and its arrival on the current American literary landscape is somewhat akin to a rainbow appearing over an industrial park. Next to the woes and grit of much of contemporary fiction, Tony Earley's first novel feels stunned by innocence - uncluttered, untainted, focused only upon capturing a particular purity of experience. That it is set in rural North Carolina during the Depression only enhances this sheen. The world rendered here was a place of almost unthinkable simplicity, when darkness was merely a cloak of night that covered you from dusk to dawn, and when a new catcher's glove - intoxicating with its leathery smell - could be the most important thing that happened to you all year.
SCHOOLS
Zeroing in on rule-breakers
'One strike and you're out' rules are doing more harm than good
(By Johanna Wald, Globe Correspondent, 8/13/2000)
In recent years, a rash of widely publicized school shootings has shattered our national equilibrium, leaving parents, students, educators, and public leaders desperate for solutions. Regrettably, our most consistent response - to crack down with ''zero tolerance'' or ''one strike and you are out'' policies - is backfiring.
CAMPAIGN 2000
An (Ivy) league of their own
Never before have Yale and Harvard so clearly dominated a presidential campaign
(By Scot Lehigh, Globe Staff, 8/13/2000)
It's ability, not pedigree, that matters. Or so we're told.
HEALTH
Hold your breath
Today's airplanes provide less fresh air than recommended, giving germs a free ride
(By Thomas J. Moore, Globe Correspondent, 8/13/2000)
n the Middle Ages, the bubonic plague traveled primarily by ship, as rats carrying infected fleas leaped ashore to decimate new cities. In the modern day, the commercial airliner has become the vehicle for many aspiring diseases.
RELIGION & POLITICS
Lieberman, Judaism and public confusion
What his keeping the faith really means
(By Lauren Stiller Rikleen and Rabbi Norman Janis, Globe Correspondents, 8/13/2000)
In a strikingly prophetic question, an article in an on-line magazine recently asked: ''Are We Ready For a Jewish Veep?'' Now, five months later, the question has a new urgency. For given the questions raised in the six days since Al Gore picked Senator Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, it is clear that much of the country is uncomfortably unfamiliar with the Jewish faith.
Focus on: 8/6-8/12
(By Globe Staff, 8/13/2000)
World The bombs return
A breathtakingly reckless promise from Bush
(By David Nyhan, Globe Staff, Globe Columnist, 8/13/2000)
LOS ANGELES - I have no notion of whether Vice President Al Gore will make missile defense a major issue when he makes his big speech here Thursday.
Why Lieberman, not Kerry, was the right choice for Gore
(By Robert A. Jordan, Globe Columnist, 8/13/2000)
Perhaps some conservative writers and talk show hosts were sincere when they said that if Al Gore picks US Senator John F. Kerry as his running mate, that would be bad news for the Republicans.
THE WORD
Getting personal
(By Jan Freeman, Globe Staff, 8/13/2000)
Last Sunday was a bad day for the third person, notes John Carroll, managing editor of WBGH-TV's ''Greater Boston,'' who found two novel errors in that one day of newspaper reading.
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